Hawaii Trip: Top 12

Went to Hawaii. Had a blast. Here's our top ten (actually top 12):

1. Swimming with Sharks: Not much to more to add to that. I swam with sharks and lived.





2. Getting Megan to snorkel: Megan had zero interest in snorkeling. But, I'm a jerk, so I kept pushing her to do it. After making her cry, she agreed to do it and kind of liked it. We came back to Hanauma Bay a second time (at 6 AM again) to do it a litte more.





3. Kayaking to the Mokes: One day, while staying in Lanikai, we kayaked over to the Mokulua islands (called the 'mokes'). The whether was a little blustery (which thoroughly freaked Megan out) but it was so cool. There was a endangered monk seal just snoozing on the beach and a sea turtle swimming in the water nearby. I did ruin my phone trying to get a shot of it underwater (ziplock bag just didn't cut it).





4. House of Aloha: Megan was on a personal mission to enjoy a shaved ice everyday of trip. She was mostly successful, but more importantly, she experienced some of the best shaved ice of her life.

Uncle Clay's House of Aloha was her favorite. Shaved Ice with ice cream, fruit, and condensed milk. She was in heaven.



5. Hiking: We did a lots of beautiful hikes. Kuli‘ou‘ou Ridge Trail, Lulumahu Falls, Pillbox hike, etc...

[caption id="attachment_2174" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Finally got to the Kuli'ou'ou Ridge.[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2194" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Watching the sunrise between the mokulua islands from the pillbox.[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2195" align="aligncenter" width="225"] At Lulumahu falls. Very pretty. very fun hike.[/caption]

6. My Poor Feet: After all the hiking, snorkeling, surfing, swimming & biking, my feet got a bit worked over. They were sunburned, blistered, and cut.



7. Another High Point (but no volcano): As a high pointer, I felt obligated to knock one more mountain off my list since we were so close. For one day, I left Megan on the North Shore (at the coolest place) and flew over to the island of Hawaii (the big island) to climb Mauna Kea, the tallest mountain in Hawaii. It's 13,800 ft, which is pretty remarkable; that's taller than Utah's high point, King's peak.

The trail starts at 9,000 ft. At about 12,000 ft, I could feel the altitude. It gave a slight headache and I got very tired walking short distances. It took me 6 hours to summit (longer than I anticipated) and 2 hours to descend. I had planned to go see the Volcano, Kilauea, that was spewing lava but I barely made it to the airport in time. It erupted again about 12 hours after I flew out.



[caption id="attachment_2176" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Megan walking around in the cool house we stayed at.[/caption]

8. Jeepin in Hawaii: One splurge was renting a jeep. We used Turo - which made it cheaper. That was really fun and nostalgic for Megan especially. We looked so local that other jeeps kept waving at us. We were part of the club.





9. Beating the Crowds: One big advantage of being on Utah time was being able to get up early (5 AM Hawaii time was 9 AM Utah time). We were able to get to places way early and leave just when the crowds started showing up.

[caption id="attachment_2178" align="aligncenter" width="225"] Here is Hanauma Bay at 6 AM - Barely anyone there.[/caption]

10. Harper's State float project: Just before we left, Harper's class worked on a state floats project. Each student was given a state to research and create a mini-float. She was assigned to Hawaii. We re-created the 'lava' video from paper mache.



11. Laie Hawaii Temple: We did do one day of very touristy stuff. We went to the polynesian center and ended at the Temple. The temple was SO BEAUTIFUL! I was blown away.



12. The Payroc glasses: I got these cheap foldable payroc glasses at a white elephant party at a  Christmas party last December. I actually really liked them and wore them the entire trip. They broke right after we got home. :(

[caption id="attachment_2189" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Sporting the Payroc glasses[/caption]